SS Robin

On 20 December 1890, Robin commenced her career in the British coastal service at Liverpool, with a crew of 12 signing the Articles for her maiden voyage. As a coaster her range was normally limited to the Home Trade limits (broadly from the Elbe to Brest. However, on her first voyage she went 400 miles (640 km) further, to Bayonne;[5] the owners had to replace the Master's mate with another, who held the correct certificate, until the ship returned to Swansea on 10 January.[8] Her second voyage began at Swansea on 14 January 1891, visiting Rouen, Northfleet on the River Thames, Eastham and Garston on the River Mersey, Plymouth, Deauville, Guernsey, London, Rochester, Newport, Swansea, Cherbourg arriving in Northfleet by 5 April 1891. This would be typical of her trading under the Red Ensign, carrying bulk cargoes of grain, iron ore, scrap steel, pit props, china clay, railway steel, general cargoes of casked and baled goods such as herring barrels, and even granite blocks for the Caledonian Canal.[5][9] In 1892, Robin was sold to Andrew Forrester Blackater of Glasgow, where she was re-registered.[2]

In 1900 Robin was sold and renamed Maria; for the next 74 years she had three different Spanish owners:

• 1900–1913 Blanco Hermanos y Compañia of Ribadesella.
• 1913–1965 Hijos de Angel Perez y Compañia of Santander. During World War I she carried iron slabs for the French government from the foundry at Santiago to Bayonne and Bordeaux, escorted by two destroyers to protect her from German U-boats. From 1935 to 1939 (the Spanish Civil War) the ship was laid up at San Esteban de Pravia.
• 1965–1974 Eduardo de la Sota Poveda of Bilbao, working around Bilbao and the north coast of Spain until 1974, carrying coal for the bunkering of liners.[5]

Until 1965, Maria's structure stayed mainly unchanged; in 1966 she had a major refit with the whaleback (at the stern) and the mizzen mast removed, the foremast and the funnel shortened, and the forecastle extended. The coal-fired furnaces were modified for oil fuel. After this she resumed trading.[5]

SS Robin, November 2005.

Maria was discovered by the Maritime Trust in 1972. Following an inspection, it was decided that she was worth preserving, and in May 1974 she was purchased, on the brink of being sold to Spanish breakers. In June 1974 she came home to St Katharine Docks under her own steam and was renamed Robin. She was restored at a cost of £250,000, with most work taking place in 1974 and 1975 at the Doust & Co shipyard at Rochester, Kent, and was subsequently moored in St Katharine Docks.[5][8] She was moved to new moorings in 1991 at West India Quay but fell into disrepair.[10]

In 2000 David and Nishani Kampfner were looking for a unique space to be transformed into an area for innovation and learning. They bought Robin for £1. In 2002, SS Robin Trust was created to bring awareness to the general public about the importance of the ship. With the help of many volunteers they began restoration on this coastal steamer.

Crossrail provided SS Robin Trust with a £1.9 million loan to enable her to move to dry dock for restoration works to commence. Before she was able to be moved, her masts, funnel, lifeboats and davits were dismantled and removed by Cutty Sark Enterprises.[10] She was then towed from West India Quay down the Canary Wharf locks to South Quay for temporary mooring. Around this time the Heritage Lottery Fund had also been approved and SS Robin Trust was awarded a grant of just under £1 million.

In June 2008, Robin was to undergo her first seaward journey in 35 years from South Quay to Lowestoft for structural restoration using, so far as was practicable, the same craft skills with which she was built in 1890, conserving her Victorian technology.[5] Once at Lowestoft a detailed examination revealed that after 118 years she was now considered too fragile to be able to float again. Initially it was thought that Robin would need a 40% steel replacement, but after the examination it showed that she would need an 80% steel replacement thereby essentially ruining her historical value. These new findings urged SS Robin Trust to find a less destructive approach maintaining Robin. It soon became clear that a pontoon would be the most innovative and least destructive method to keep her floating and to preserve and display her original riveted fabric.[5] It also provided a wealth of more space. In 2010, Robin was lifted by two cranes and placed onto her new pontoon.[11] She was then towed to Tilbury[12] where she was moored for a year.

SS Robin, July 2014.

After 3 years of conservation work in Tilbury, in July 2011 Robin returned to east London, where she was originally built, to undergo further internal restoration and preparation before opening as the SS Robin museum, theatre and educational centre in the Royal Victoria Dock in Newham borough in 2014, with the support of a grant of just over £950,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.[13][14][15]

She was then subsequently moved to the Millennium Mills Dock, where she was temporarily berthed for further restoration and development before reopening to the public, at the western end of the Royal Victoria Dock (close to the London Cable Car), in 2015.